TI4: Closing words from Era & Fnatic

Just a few hours ago Valve made a statement public in which they presented their version of the case to the public. While we greatly value transparency we want to present facts that were left out from Valves original statement here. Despite the trying times Era has also stepped forward to give a statement on this matter.

Adrian "Era" Kryeziu, Fnatic Dota 2:

Hi friends!

I believe that my personal statement on this matter has been long overdue. However, please understand that I have avoided publicity because I have been focusing on my recovery.

I am finally writing because there are misunderstandings that need to be clarified. The most glaring of these is the e-mail I wrote to Valve on Friday, June 13th.

At this point in time, I had not seen my doctor more than once--this means I had not been treated with therapy or medication yet. I was home, in a very frustrated and confused mental state; frustrated that I had worked so damn hard this past year for nothing, and confused on what I should do about it. I had a Skype call with my teammates. All of us were at a loss. We had never encountered a problem like this before in the years we had been together, so we had no idea how to handle it. I misunderstood what they were saying to me about how to handle TI4 (like being potentially replaced); I just wanted so much to play! So in my despair I did what I thought was best, which was to contact Valve directly and see what my chances were.

Writing Valve on the 13th was irrational on my part, I’ll admit. I had tunnel vision on TI4 without first considering my actual condition, whether or not I’d be physically capable of traveling and playing by July. I felt that my dream was about to crumble around me so I struck out without thinking.

Afterwards, I stayed in constant contact with Patrik about my ongoing condition. I saw a therapist many times to see if physically attending TI4 would even be possible. After about a week of visits, it was concluded that traveling would be too stressful and may prolong recovery and it would be better to stay home.

I told this to my teammates in a follow-up Skype call. I told them that I was OK with Steve (Xcalibur) replacing me if that was possible and that I hope it was possible-- I just really want to focus on getting better. We really cleared the air; we understood each other’s perspectives and just wanted to move forward. I even sent Valve a private email on June 18th where I said that it would be better for Xcalibur to take my place.

To be honest, this crazy situation that everyone is fussing over is stressing me out even more. I am faced with pressure on all sides and it feels like any direction I take, I will be disappointing someone. Do I choose to miss out on a future career? Do I ruin my teammates’ chances for the sake of myself? Or do I choose to ruin my health for the sake of others?

Currently, I am on the road to recovery. I was able to play some Dota2 this past week without feeling the anxiety, but I’m still not confident. I’m scared of having the same thing that happened when I traveled to London to happen again if I go to TI4 with my body being anything less than 100%. I am not on medication, as my therapist told me I am improving quite well on my own, but what I need most is time for my body to repair itself. This is best done by stepping away from the stress that is constantly going on in the scene.

I don’t want to be a hindrance to anyone or ruin others’ chances. I will try my best to go to TI4 if Valve’s decision cannot be changed, but I would be jeopardizing my chances of playing post-TI. At the end of the day, I might physically get there, but not be able to compete while also extending or damaging my recovery process.

I want to apologize to Valve for writing an email before I had my facts straight. It was wrong to contact them without confirmation and final details from doctors and such. I acted irrationally because I wanted TI4 so much.

Also, shoutout to Fnatic and my teammates. Like I said, I’ve been talking to Patrik this whole time and have been cc’d on emails these past few months.

I just want all this madness to be over. All I want is for the guys to go to TI4.

I'm writing this statement on behalf of everyone at Fnatic, Valve's response has left us somewhat saddened and disappointed about the past 24 hours debacle. The decision to publicly address the issues that the team has been facing of late stems from their strong belief that the Dota 2 community deserves to know what is going on in the team regarding the recent absence of our long-serving member Adrian “Era” Kryeziu.

Now, I did use the word disappointed above, and I will in the remainder of this statement address why we all feel that the blog post posted by Valve about this didn’t explain the entire story. There’s some really important information left out that somewhat shifts the spotlight of this story away from an unethical/broken rule book and a player with a documented illness, to us as a team not showing support to a player in need.

Below follows our standpoints on the story Valve once again decided to make public, despite the fact that in our very first email to them we asked for the highest confidentiality about this matter to ensure highest integrity towards the affected player.

The missing e-mails

I am happy to verify that the emails that are posted are genuine, as I’m obviously the sender and receiver of several of these letters. However, what has left me extremely saddened and lost is that Valve, intentionally or not, decided to exclude two crucial emails that we now feel obliged to post - in the name of true transparency. In order to bring you up to speed with the context, the first and fourth letter attached below has already been made public, but it still serves a purpose here for you to follow the dialogue between us and Valve as they were all in the same email chain:

Dear Erik, Icefrog and Adrian,I'm now returning to you after having discussed this matter thoroughly with our Dota 2 team, and also Era's family.As you know this period of time has included a lot of turmoil and frustration for everyone involved. This unexpected situation has severely halted our preparation going into what is the most busy and competitive Summer in the history of Dota. The decision the team has now come to, with blessing from Era(Adrian Kryeziu), is that Steve Ye aka. Excalibur will step in as our carry player for the upcoming events, including EMS Frankfurt, and more importantly in this dialogue: The International 4. We lifted on every single stone around to try work out a solution that would involve Era, since we strongly believe his experience and skill sets would be very needed at the Summer's events. But as you already know at this stage, Era's health issues does not only hinders us to prepare accordingly(LAN practice), but also and more importantly, it is risking his own well-being during travelling, something that thus far has lead us to go through two urgent calls for stand-ins just days before two important events, D2L and BTS.After we have hopefully gotten your approval for the late player change, I believe it's very important that we together determine a solid strategy when it comes to how to communicate this so it's done in a manner that protects the integrity of our team, with emphasize on Era. To add additional transparency, I would like to mention that the team wants to reward Era in the event of financial success, this specifically means that him and the replacement player will share any prize money winnings.Finally, please let me know if any additional information is needed from our end at this point, and on behalf of the team and the Fnatic organisation I want to thank you for your understanding during this stressful period of time.Best regards,

Patrik SättermonChief Gaming OfficerFNATIC

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The letter above was sent to Erik at Valve with permission and blessing from Era a few days after Dreamhack, when Era’s mental state had once again taken a step back, and made him realize that he is not capable of playing, despite what he wrote to Valve a few days earlier.

We’ve discussed this internally and do not see a path where Fnatic can compete in The International with a different team from the original five that were invited. The key issue here is less about player health, and more about time. The tournament will begin in a little over two weeks, which is well past the point where roster changes can happen.

If Fnatic would still like to compete this year, the invite stands for the original five players. Please let me know what you decide in the next 48 hours so we can move forward.

Erik

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This email is the first email that Valve decided to not publish in their recent blog post. This answer caught us completely off guard; the least we would have hoped for was that Valve contacted Era himself to discuss his recent progress, as we know they must ensure transparency between every party. Instead they gave us 48 hours to confirm our attendance, something that caused a lot of frustration and stress from everyone involved on our end.

I’m a little bit frustrated that you seem to believe that the health issues of the player in question, is not the sole reason we are finding ourselves in this situation - which we again so much wish we wouldn’t be in. We do appreciate the short time frame, but take this as a testimony that we wanted to explore all options, even the most astronomical long shots, when it comes to participating with the original lineup.

I’m grateful that you have copied in Adrian himself in the loop, even that I can guarantee you that we have had a very open and candid dialogue with him throughout this stressful times. I have also invited Kai “H4nn1” Hanbueckers to be a part of this email chain, to ensure complete transparency between all parties involved.

As I mentioned in the previous email earlier today, even if that was perhaps not in-depth enough, not only Adrian himself and his parents agrees to the proposed player change, but also his doctor.

In fact, Adrian had a follow up appointment with his psychiatrist yesterday and in this meeting the doctor recommended Adrian to rest and stay away from stressful situation, including overseas travel, in order to guarantee swift recovery.

Attached in this email you also find a doctor’s certificate that was issued after Adrian’s failure to attend BTS earlier in June, before which he suffered from severe panic attacks that made us urgently put him on a flight to Sweden for immediate healthcare. Adrian has agreed to attaching this file here for your reference, so you realize that we are in fact talking about health issues, which for us in the end of the day is more important than the success of our team, which of course comes in as a close second in priority.

The doctor’s certificate is in Swedish but I appreciate that you guys would need to validate its content with a third party anyway, so I have intentionally left out any translation, unless such is requested by you.

Now, we are finding ourselves with two options that by no means are ideal. The first is obviously to go against Adrian’s doctor and instead hope that the recent frequent panic attacks won’t come back during the two-weeks long competition in Seattle. The second option, which we are pushing for powered by every parties approval, is to replace Adrian with Steve(Excalibur) until the doctor gives us his blessing to let Adrian get back to the game and lifestyle he loves. We definitely do not want to reject our invitation to TI4, as that would mean that the immense amount of time and money invested into this project would go to waste. We do therefore sincerely hope that you all can once again discuss this matter and analyse the new information and documentation I present to you in this letter, again with Adrian’s approval.

Finally, as you have given us a relatively slim deadline to determine this I would appreciate if we actually can get all parties onto a Skype call and discuss this so we can save time, something the team would also appreciate as they are currently losing sleep not knowing which direction we are heading towards.

Best regards

Patrik Sättermon

Chief Gaming Officer

FNATIC

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We’ve stood by our HoN squad and now Dota 2 Squad for a very long time. Everyone at Fnatic has wanted the best for all those we cheer for and work for everyday. To ensure that Valve understood that this was not a matter of kicking out an experienced player and loyal friend out from our team; a team that has stayed loyal and united longer than any other Dota division in history, I quickly got back to Erik with a doctor’s certificate, that was issued after Era’s inability to attend BTS. This document was submitted after Era’s email to Valve and provided medical evidence as to Era’s condition. We’ve all felt horrible to have to discuss this but we did so with Era’s full permission. Our hope by presenting this new documentation was to beg Valve to once again re-consider this case, something they promised to do on a case-by-case basis whenever there is a proven medical condition that can hinder attendance.

To: Patrik Sättermon <removed>

This is sad news for us, but it sounds like you won’t be able to compete in the tournament this year if I’m reading this correctly. The only possible outcomes are that the original five invited players compete, or you are withdrawing from the tournament. Sounds like the original five cannot play.

We would still like to extend the offer of coming out to the event as spectators for the duration of the event.

Erik

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Unfortunately, and as you are all now aware, Valve did not overturn their decision and our team was then destined to pray for a quick recovery for Adrian, who would/will have to go against a doctor’s written advice to attend this tournament. We know missing out on the biggest tournament in esports is not something any of us want. But presented with medical evidence, the team had to consider their options. We ask all of you in the Dota 2 community, would it be responsible of anyone to force Era to compete at any events for fear that it could permanently damage his health? None of us wished for this and based on the presented circumstances, we did whatever we could do to make certain we were doing the right thing for everyone in the team including Era.

The nature of the illness

Fnatic acknowledge that Valve, after the point Era reached out to them in despair after he realized that his teammates suggested him to take a break from gaming, had to act in a way that protected the player, as they were not presented by either medical proof, or a player that realized that he is not capable to play. This is exactly what we all expect from an organization like Valve that have demonstrated their commitment to the loyal Dota 2 community and its professional player-base.

However, we strongly think that Valve’s stance should have changed after the 18th June and on wards, when first of all the player himself came to the conclusion together with his doctor that it’s not likely he can play, and secondly medical documentation was presented to prove this.

I also personally believe that Valve, considering the nature of the illness in question, should at a later point have re-examined the initial reaction from Era. Just a few days later he personally told them that it’s very likely he can’t make it, and would like to see his spot taken over. Era made the decision to put his health needs first and give his long time friends the opportunity they have all worked for years to realize.

Broken confidentiality

We understand it was, with Era’s permission, that we released the course of events to the community. We agreed with Valve that emails shared were to be kept confidential, not to hide anything but rather to protect all of the emotionally charged parties present. It is extremely saddening that confidential information shared between two parties was laid out in the public eye- crucially excluding the one email that outlines Era’s condition with the attached Doctor’s certificate. We’ve read the Valve blogpost countless times now and without the email detailing Era’s medical condition, we’d criticize us too. In the spirit of transparency and as the confidentiality of our email exchanges have been made public by Valve, the community should know that all correspondence from our end has been approved by Era himself. This includes the blog post our Dota 2 team themselves posted and signed yesterday.

Skype?

In retrospect, we were all very let down that Valve at no point was interested to spend thirty minutes on a Skype call with all of the players so they could in a more straightforward environment discuss the situation in an open transparent manner. The goal in doing so was to hopefully work out a solution so that as little suffering is caused to any of the players affected. All of the players were desperate to be heard by Valve; a company they have and still adore so much. Unfortunately, attempts to verbally discuss our attendance at this gigantic tournament that we have all been anticipating so long was neglected.

Closing thoughts

All in all, we deeply regret being in this situation. In the end of the day all we want to do is to do what we do best, and that is to compete in the sport we love and live for. Our intention has not, and will never be to halt the progress of eSports, but as we see it our sport needs to have ethical rules that takes every party in consideration, be it the game’s developer, the eSports team, the player, or you guys - the fans.

There’s no real way to summarize how everyone at Fnatic is feeling right now. With TI4 showing the world that esports should be taken seriously, we want to strive to be the guys who pay our players the best in the business, provide them with everything they need to win and be responsible for them through health and illness. It’s our strongest belief that organisations such as ours serves a fundamental role in this industry, and with that being said we think it does make sense to aim towards establishing a structure in eSports where teams have the ability to determine their lineups, and in addition to that we propose that substitute players should always be granted to avoid similar situations in the future

On behalf of our organisation, and especially our Dota 2 players, I would like to thank everyone for the warm support you have shown us in these rough times, and no matter what we hope that you are cheering for us at ESL One and TI4.

Valve DID post these e-mails for everyone to see: they can be read here - (http://cdn.dota2.com/apps/dota2/posts/fnaticemailupdated.txt) They added these emails hours before your post. There is also at least one more additional e-mail from them that you neglected to post.

I agree with Valve's decision. Had Fnatic let them know before the qualifiers, I believe Valve would've allowed the roster change in exchange that Fnatic gets bumped down competing in the qualifiers (like with LGD last year). But by delaying the decision of replacing Era, they made a huge hassle for the players involved and for Valve. The main factor here is time: for Fnatic to ask for a roster change AFTER the invitations were sent (EG had let Valve know Fear may be unable to play and that Mason was their stand-in before the invites) mere weeks before the playoffs and the main event is asking a lot. If the International--the biggest tournament of DotA 2 and possibly all of E-sports-- does not abide by their own standards and give Fnatic a break, it would be setting a bad example.

Fnatic needs to take responsibility for their own mistakes. Although I do hope Era is well enough to compete at TI4. It would make a legendary story

this fnatic "manager" is really bad at his job.
and this post where you tying to make valve look bad only make me disappointed with you. i just hope the guys will leave this team after ti and get a better organisation, with professional management where managers dont talk behind players back.

I can't believe so many are against fnatic. They handled this professionally imo. I feel like most of you didn't even read it! The only reason valve should have these strict rules is for fairness of teams/players and qualified skilled teams. Both of which Excalibur brings. Era is okay with it because he would be hurting his team by playing and he knows it. And he also gets rewarded for performance. And Excalibur has proven his skill. Also if anyone's being manipulative it was valve. Not everyone read the extra emails, the ones they included were way organized and featured in a manipulative fashion. Why am I arguing with you guys actually... Read the post and all the facts... Ffs

Wow this turned ugly fast... I am way beyond caring who is right and who is wrong but at this point we are all losers. The one thing that pisses me off though is the fact that this mess is carried out on Eras back (no pun intended). The guy is 18 years old... I can't even imagine how that would feel even to a person whos older and doesn't have that condition... I would rather see fnatic not attend than see Era harm himself over this.

But as I said we are all losers. Firstly the fans of fnatic because we probably won't see our favorite team in top shape and DotA 2 fans in general because we will miss out on some great games.

Secondly the fnatic squad who pulled through some rough times ever since switching to DotA 2.

And finally both of your companies. This public bitchfight is a disgrace and should not have happened. And honestly why did it have to come to this? Sure the fnatic organisation looks kind of shady in all of this but everyone could've profited.

Excalibur has shown that he can be a great asset for the team so we couldve expected some high level DotA. That's something Valve wants. This whole shitstorm could've been avoided. Both fnatic and Valve should want this. Eras condition would not have been made public. We all should want this.

I don't really know how I feel about fnatic right now, time will tell. But the one thing I am absolutely certain about is that the whole ruleset with no substitutions (which was brought up before) is a mess and Valve should seriously look into that.

I just hope we can close this sad chapter sooner or later and concentrate on what's most important and that's Eras health.

I understand what Era is going through because I have had the same problems and I know that anxiety is a nightmare. I hope he will recover as soon as possible , my message to him is this : Everything that goes on in our mind that we are aware of, we can control; we are able to do that no matter how weak and powerless we feel, what begins in our mind can be ended by our mind there's no doubt about it, I got well by convincing myself that the fear is not real because there is no danger, and what is not real cannot hurt me, when I started to panic I asked myself "is there a reason to be afraid? no. so stop" I did this every time since the first feeling that an attack will occur and eventually the attacks weakened then disappeared completely. I strongly hope my message gets to Era and I hope it can help him. Good luck , mate!

This post is only making things worse for you. Best thing you could do was to let it go because Valve only did (this "broken confidentiality thing") what you forced them to do.

- First blog post, you try to make Valve look like the bad guy of the story. And you throw your player under the bus, litteraly destroying his private life.
- Valve's response makes you the bad guys of the story in the eyes of everyone.
- You send a ridiculous tweet before deleting it.
- And now your response is only this ? cArn, your image as "CGO at Fnatic" after all this will take a heavy hit...sorry but you picked up a fight with Valve and lost by K.O :/

I don't know if anyone of direct importance to the team will read this, but I feel obliged to post this.

Era, as an also mentally problemed dota2 player, I have to say: Please don't play at the TI unless you feel 150% able to compete and your doctor(s) allow it.

I know that little mistakes can cost much regarding mental issues and with all that pressure on you, I hope you stay save and take a break - For your own, your family's, your friend's and your team's sake.
The reasoning behind is: Let's imagine you compete at TI not fully recovered:

1. You'll be likely to underperform a bit, because you weren't able to train much (with the others)
2. You risk to put a dent into your own gaming carreer, probably needing to take another break past TI - or even worse.
3. It may even be the best for your team to not have you compete - I know it sounds weird, but hear me out:
You five have been playing together more than any other active professional dota2 roster (from what I know) and I strongly assume that this lead to a probably even good friendship.
I think what they probably want even more than competing at TI is competing together with YOU. As you said already, going to TI will put you at risk being unable to play after TI. Sure the chain of events leading to this situation (meaning the communication between fnatic and valve), lead to you being under pressure as well, but please, do yourself, your family, your friends and team, the organisation and especially your fans a favour and complete your recovery before jumping into competing.

I think I speak for most fans that we want to see the whole fnatic competing together again and we will wait for you to have recovered if so needed. We won't be disappointed if you don't compete in TI. And especially I think it would be very said, if you jump into TI, underperfom leading to a failure of fnatic an TI, hurting you even more and in the worst case of you needing to retire and lose the way of life you seem to love so much.

I for myself did the mistake of giving myself up for others leading to a lot of suffering for myself and even for them - I hope for you, you don't do the same mistake.

After reading what Valve wrote and all the emails in their "updated" blog as well as on this site I think Fanatic has really tried their best for all parties concerned. I have no words to describe the situation that Valve has put you in and if any people reading this can't see the enormous rock/hard place and how differently they treated Fanatic compared to EG then please reread all the emails, they have their point of view true but they are being completely unfair and inflexible.

Era is not and should not be put in the position to make decisions in these circumstances, it puts undue pressure on him and his health you've got to decide together and accept responsibility together to take the pressure from him. As a team if you do decide to go with Era which it looks like you are being forced to do and I'm sure Era doesn't want to let anyone down on the team and will force himself than ask Valve to pay additional expense of bring over a theapist with you. Its the bleeping least they can do after causing this and this will I'm sure will exercises and sessions be able to help Era through.

It is worth going even just for the experience EVEN if your results suffer, the International this year is huge and you guys have been a major part of building this community into what it is. It would be criminal if you weren't there to enjoy it as much as you can.

Best of luck, take care of yourselves and Era, and fuck valve they've been assholes over this.

Straight and clear, Valve have done absolutely everything correct in this quite serious side. Once era was cleared to play by the doctor, be it how small it was made, then fnatic haven't a food to stand on. Fnatic have the audacity to try and change line up even though! The original player is now healthy enough to play is beyond me! Not only is it selfish thinking of the managers part but the players on fnatic look extremely silly over this ordeal. Then the manager trying to make valve look bad, hahahah. Amusing, I cannot understand how fnatic ever thought this would work. This is unfair to the other teams participating! They have strategies against certain players and for fnatic to think they can change players is ludicrous . It is also a hassle for valve to change everything around because fnatic want a better chance at winning the tournament. Selfish selfish selfish, there is no rebuttal to this. End of discussion

I am so sad and so sorry for Era, I don't know what to believe ... Some say that Fnatic wanted Era out and tried to exaggerate his illness in order to have him replaced (to understand what I'm saying you have to read Era's e-mail to Valve); of course , later he did apologize for it saying he was in a frustrated, confused mental state ... that statement might seem forced out of him, I don't know.. I couldn't believe this, I don't want to. It seems preposterous , don't you think?